Thursday December 23, 2010 9:32 pm

Many people take the security of their smartphones for granted. As the amount of private data communicated through smartphones increases, so does the threat of attacks from viruses and hackers. Choosing to act now rather than wait for a security fiasco, phone companies such as AT&T, are hiring security researchers to focus on strengthening the security of mobile phones from attacks. Since security has previously not been a major concern on mobile devices it will take some time (years) for these security measures to fully implement.

"Everyone is realizing that this is an uncontrolled environment," said Edward G. Amoroso, chief security officer of AT&T Inc. "We don't want to have the same problems that we had with PCs."

AT&T took on 13 Ph.Ds. over the past six months to start work in a new lab based out of New York City to focus on mobile security technology that detects and defends against malicious attacks aimed at the mobile device. Verizon Wireless also partnered with mobile-security provider Lookout Inc., who provided Android, BlackBerry, and Windows phones with a free application that locates lost phones, backs up data, and remotely wipes devices clean.

Of course, one of the leading smartphone makers known for business security, Research In Motion Ltd., is releasing their very own BlackBerry Protect, allowing data backups, and remotely locating, locking, or erasing devices.

You can bet that over the next few years, phone companies and mobile phone manufacturers will start implementing tougher security measures to protect the privacy and integrity of our phones. Through it all, there's just one important question everybody should be asking themselves: does this mean no more nude celeb leaks?